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Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Congestion charging in Mumbai? More mundane reforms needed first

DNA India reports on growing congestion in Mumbai and how congestion charging has been raised as a possible solution. The city has faced a 7% increase in vehicles in each of the past seven years and has been mulling various demand management options including a 200% tax on a second family car. Whilst it is clear Mumbai can't sustain every increasing growth in vehicle usage and ownership, the point is that it will stop eventually, and having blanket taxes on home ownership will open ample opportunities for evasion. The obvious one will be to register vehicles at addresses of family members without cars.

The article does talk about congestion charging elsewhere, not representing the examples it uses well (Singapore has moved well beyond the Area Licensing Scheme and "value pricing" in the US is HOT lanes, which offers little in this context).

In India there are a whole host of options to address congestion. I'd highlight, before pricing, the following:

- Make safe provision for pedestrians and active road users. Cyclists, human-powered carts and the like. They use road space far more efficiently than cars and modern developed cities are recognising this.

- Impose and enforce parking restrictions, including charging for kerbside parking. In many cases roads must be corridors, not stopping places and while you're at it, ensure private provision of parking on land is neither inhibited or mandatory. Market pricing for parking will go a long way to moderating demand for road space.

- Simplify and modernise systems for identifying road vehicles. All of the congestion pricing in the world wont work unless you can identify vehicles, identify their owners and fine them when they violate traffic laws.

- Abolish subsidies on fuel. Whilst popular, fuel subsidies are very regressive and promote private car use, and so should be scrapped before considering additional charges. Simply having road users paying the market price for fuel (with any general sale tax added) will moderate growth in demand.

- Preserve corridors for buses and possibly freight, in advance of pricing. With efficient pricing there is theoretically no need for this, but meanwhile buses and freight, the most efficient users of roads, need to be given a chance. In parallel to this, buses should be liberalised so that market demand can be met by entrepreneurs. You might charge for licences for bus companies to use bus stops and bus lanes, requiring they meet some minimum standards, particularly for safety, but set them free if government is incapable of adequately investing to meet demand.

Only then will it seem plausible to consider road pricing. You might start with a vignette permit style system, whereby vehicles can pay annual, month, week or day passes to use a central city location, granting permits to residents at a discount. That is where Singapore started, but it could be done electronically, and then the revenue should be managed so that it is dedicated to improvements to the highway network, starting with optimising maintenance and making intersections safer and better managed. Such a fund needs an independent board with oversight, to avoid corruption and to ensure best value for what is spent.

For now, Mumbai needs a comprehensive congestion management strategy, with enforcement of traffic laws near the top of the agenda. That might not be popular with motorists and politicians as a result, but it would form the foundations for what is needed for congestion charging - an efficient, reliable and effective way of identifying those who do not pay and collecting charges and fines from them.

1 comment:

Mumbai city need car pull and practically all rush hour time on major arteries minimum 4 people should travel. I found solution with my north American traffic expertise and I spend lots of time in Mumbai explaining this to people during my visit in Mumbai. Finally I reached CP Bharambe and my journey ended their with negative and arrogant attitude. As my solution for rush hour was tossed about car pull telling me how TATA GM will travel. Besides I was also requesting him that all transport truck should do deliveries in night and we need to create By law enforcement department of civilian who will support cops during rush hour but CP Bharambe was in no mood to listen as he is from Nagpur on deputation and who cares if people waste all their life in rush hour. I also told CP Bharambe that it is creating bad effect on environment and he said its not my issue. I tried telling that Mumbai has thousands of abandoned vehicles and if we have By Law department they will help in towing that will have great impact on rush hour. I was willing to stay with my own will and help Mumbai traffic Police to set up this and DCP Chavan Traffic Police North Zone was in favor but CP Bharambe thought me as an idiot.

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What is road pricing?

Road pricing is any system that directly charges motorists for the use of a road or network of roads. Traditionally it has meant tolls on single routes, particularly crossings such as bridges or tunnels. More recently it also includes area, cordon and zone pricing of urban areas, and distance and time based charging of whole networks. It does not include fuel or tyre taxes, or taxes on ownership or purchase of road vehicles.